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Iran war: What's behind the regime's 'revenge propaganda'?
Following the funeral of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, senior figures, parliamentarians, and pro-government media have intensified calls for revenge. A conservative daily published a wanted list of Western officials, while analysts debate the role of psychological warfare and deterrence.
Since the funeral of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, senior figures in the Islamic Republic have significantly escalated their rhetoric. Politicians, state-controlled media outlets, and the country's new supreme leader have publicly called for retaliation to avenge Khamenei's death, as reported by Deutsche Welle.
Coverage Comparison
The reporting on this story comes from Deutsche Welle, which has detailed the escalating calls for revenge within Iran. The outlet frames the escalation as a deliberate strategy of psychological warfare and deterrence, quoting a legal scholar to provide context. Other perspectives or independent verification were not part of the available coverage.
Key Claims
Senior figures in Iran have publicly called for retaliation to avenge the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to Deutsche Welle.
During the first in-person session of Iran's parliament since the start of the war, lawmakers waved red flags bearing calls for revenge, based on images published by Iranian media. More than 180 of the parliament's 290 members endorsed demands for retaliation, as reported by Deutsche Welle.
Pro-government media outlets have promoted calls for revenge aggressively. The conservative daily Hamshahri published a "wanted list" under the headline "Retaliation Is Inevitable," featuring 13 Western politicians and military officials, including foreign and defense ministers, the commander of US Central Command (CENTCOM), and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, according to Deutsche Welle.
The new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, has focused on retaliation after his father's funeral, rather than emphasizing reconciliation or reconstruction, as noted by Deutsche Welle.
Legal scholar and human rights researcher Moein Khazaeli told DW that these threats should not simply be dismissed as political rhetoric, but it is important to distinguish between the capability, the intention, and the actual possibility of carrying out such threats.
Khazaeli said the Iranian leadership is pursuing several objectives with its rhetoric, including portraying its weakened military and security apparatus as strong and operational, which constitutes a significant part of psychological warfare and a strategy of deterrence.
The regime is also signaling that it could resort to terrorist methods if international pressure continues—a threat that cannot be dismissed outright given the Islamic Republic's history of overseas operations, as suggested by Khazaeli in his interview with DW.
The target audience of these threats includes Iran's own supporters, as well as Western governments and opponents of the Islamic Republic abroad, including Iranian journalists, political activists, human rights defenders, and exiled dissidents, according to Khazaeli's analysis reported by DW.
How this outlet told it
Deutsche Welle
Framing: Iran escalates rhetoric after Khamenei's funeral — Objective with a critical undertone
Facts Included:
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's funeral escalated rhetoric
Senior figures called for retaliation
Lawmakers waved red flags with calls for revenge
Pro-government media outlets promoted revenge aggressively
Hamshahri published a wanted list of 13 Western politicians and military officials
New supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei focused on retaliation after his father's funeral
Each row is one claim, attributed to the outlet whose wording states it most clearly. Confidence rates how directly the source text states the claim — explicit and unhedged rates high; hedged, pieced-together, or internally inconsistent statements rate lower. It does not measure whether the claim is true. Status counts the distinct outlets we found asserting it — so a single-source claim can still show high confidence, and a multi-source claim can show medium. Every one of those outlets is named beside the status, so you can check the count against the list. For claims extracted before we began storing that list, the row says so: it names the outlet the claim is quoted from and states that we have not recorded which outlets backed it. Outlets wrote at different times, so a figure that evolves — a casualty count, for example — can legitimately differ between rows; check the "as of" time next to each claim's source.
Claim
Confidence
Status
ClaimIran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's funeral escalated rhetoric, with senior figures calling for retaliation to avenge his death.
ClaimPro-government media outlets have promoted calls for revenge aggressively, including the publication of a wanted list of 13 Western politicians and military officials by the conservative daily Hamshahri.
ClaimThe list featured 13 Western politicians and military officials, including foreign and defense ministers, the commander of US Central Command (CENTCOM) and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
ClaimThe new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, focused on retaliation after his father's funeral, rather than emphasizing reconciliation or reconstruction.
ClaimMoein Khazaeli, a legal scholar and human rights researcher, stated that the Iranian leadership's threats should not be dismissed as mere rhetoric, but also that it is essential to distinguish between capability, intention, and actual possibility of carrying out such threats.
ClaimKhazaeli believes that the Iranian regime is attempting to portray its weakened military and security apparatus as strong and operational through its rhetoric, which includes a significant part of psychological warfare and a strategy of deterrence.
ClaimThe Iranian regime is signaling that it could resort to terrorist methods if international pressure continues, a threat that cannot be dismissed outright given the Islamic Republic's history of overseas operations.
ClaimThe target audience of the Iranian regime's threats includes its own supporters, as well as Western governments and opponents of the Islamic Republic abroad, including Iranian journalists, political activists, human rights defenders, and exiled dissidents.